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'Drunkorexia' growing problem on campuses: Research

The rare death of a university student from binge drinking has brought heightened attention to the issue.

Photograph by: Marco Di Lauro
, Getty Images

More students on university and college campuses are cutting calories during the day so they can binge drink at night, leaving them open to long-term health problems, new U.S. research suggests.

Results from a study out of the University of Missouri found that as many as one in five students save their calories for alcohol, an eating and drinking disorder dubbed 'drunkorexia.'

The findings, which have been presented publicly but not peer-reviewed, are part of a growing body of research showing drunkorexia as a trend on campuses.

Students in the study said their motivations to be drunkorexic included getting drunk faster, spending money on alcohol that might otherwise be spent on food, and keeping their weight down.

The growing problem is another issue counsellors will have to handle as students spend their limited funds in potentially unhealthy ways, said Dr. Valerie Taylor, chief of psychiatry at Women's College Hospital in Toronto.

"It's ironic. Society has to adapt to our changing environment and these kids are doing the same thing," Taylor said.

"Perhaps . . . because students don't have as much money, it's becoming more prevalent."

Taylor said alcohol abuse and mental-health issues are on the rise in Canada and schools continue to try to address the problem.

One example was in May when Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said it would address a "culture of drinking on campus" after the release of a coroner's report that concluded excessive drinking was a factor in the deaths of two students at the beginning and end of the 2010 fall term.

"Like other universities, we are wrestling with the societal issue of alcohol consumption and excessive drinking in the university-aged population," the university's dean of student affairs, John Pierce, said in a statement at the time. "We've been proactively addressing this issue for several years and will continue to do so."

Drunkorexia differs from anorexia, where people purposely starve themselves to lose weight, Taylor said. It's also different from dieters who avoid alcohol to lose weight, but may give in and have a drink when their willpower fails them, she said.

The research suggests the majority of drunkorexics are women — they were three times more likely to have the disorder than men.

Women are at higher risk for health problems related to binge drinking because they metabolize alcohol faster than men. This means women can get sick faster and suffer damage to vital organs sooner than men.

"Women are bombarded with lots of images with what's socially acceptable," Taylor said. "They desperately want to not gain weight.

"If they can only consume so many calories a day . . . that's going to come from alcohol."

Drunkorexics are at greater risk of becoming sexual assault victims and suffering from substance abuse and more severe eating disorders later in life, Taylor said.

What these students may not be aware of is that drunkorexia could affect their ability to learn and to make decisions, and ultimately damage their internal organs, the Missouri study suggests.

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